Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-10-01
THE GHOST OF MRS. JONES.

she takes life easily, is always cheerful,
eschews the emotional, and is never trou-
bled with what savage old Carlyle rebuked
in poor Jane as feelings" Her easy
going husband, who dotes on her, earns a
good salary in the city, which, as he
detests accounts, he regularly hands over
to his wife every Saturday night, making
her the treasurer of the concern And she
fills the position admirably. She made
the estimates for the house when they were
going to build-she paid for the materials,
she kept an eve on the carpenters she paid
them their wages until the house was fin
ished; since then, she pays taxes and in
sllrance, and keeps the establishment in
repair While she is in no sense misery
or mean, she knows precisely how many
cents there are in dollar, and how to use
them to the best advantage She has a
healthy body and clear conscience and
Is more completely free from any touch of
InOrbidity or superstition than any person
of my acquaintance
Not long ago she and | enjoyed an af-
ternoon chat by ourselves, and the dis
couyse-induced by newspaper paragraph
which mentioned-fell on the subject of
ghost stories. l remarked skeptically:
" have been ghost-hunting all my life
like poor Shelly
While yet boy sought for ghosts, and sped
Through many listening chamber, cave and
And moonlight wood, with fearful steps pur-
suing.
Hopes OF high talk with the departed dead
but have never been able to see one and
it is hard for me 10 believe that human
eyes ever have seen Il disembodied spirit"
To my amazement, sudden cloud had
fallen over my neighbours rosy face. " If
you'll promise not to laugh at me, or think
me an idiot" she said, will tell you a
little experience of mine that has always
troubled me- rarely mention it, because
people who do not know me as You do
would surely say l was visionary and fool
ISL, and have deceived myselEbut | as
sure you that what | am going to tell YOU
really did happen, in broad daylight, too.
Long before you and | became ac-
qaIainted, and when my Charley was a
baby in my arms-he is my Oldest child,
yen know, and then there were only his
father, he and myself in the family-we
lived in a pleasant, quiet street in Brook
Ign, and Mr.. jones and his wife lived in
the fiat above us. Mrs. Jones was very
pleasant and intelligent person, and good
neigAEr. She was large, ungraceful
woman and very plain-looking; and |
was not long in perceiving that her hus-
band, who was her junior by some years,
was fully aware of these facts, and disliked
her accordingly, although they must have
existed at the time that he asked her to
marry him, only a couple of years before
1t was evident that she was unhappy with
him, and although she never made con-
fidant of me, still from an occasional re-
mark of hers, and from the talk of the
neighbors who had known her before her
marriage, | discovered before long that she
hal been quite m heiress in her own right
al that time, and that Mr.. Jones, who
seemed to be disliked by all the people
about him, had persuaded her to marry
him in order that he might OBJ
tain her property. The match was
quite unfit, rs she was not only his
senior, but was an eminently domestic,
home-loving woman, who devoted herself
to the care of her home and her husband
they had no chiId-while he was a
Eighty, unstable person, often away from
home for days together, and evidently car
ing nothing whatever for her devotion to
him. l pitied poor Mrs. Jones, thus
doomed to life Of almost entire loneliness;
for her friends having vainly opposed her
marriage, believing him to be fortune
hunter and Il bad man, seldom came near
her They had, however, taken measures
to secure her property SO that he could not
obtain control of it. BY failing to provide
for the needs of the establishment, he
forced her to support him and herself; but
ne could not squander her money. This
angered him, Of course, as he had married
her with no other purpose-and he treated
her brutality. lie had never cared for her,
and besides, he was apparently in love
with Il younger and prettier woman in the
next street, with whom he was often seen
walking, and at whose he house spent two
or three evenings every week in spite of
gossip. There was no denying that Mrs.
Jones was much too good for her husband,
who seemed trying i'll all ways to shorten
her life by continued annoyance and worry.
1t seemed to me after a while that he
was trying some more effectual means to
shorten her days. At any rate, she had
queer fits of illness accompanied by I'M
which there seemed no sufficient reason.
After time she would partially recover,
and be about the house again, and after
each i'll turn she looked more and more
like death, and was at last hardly able to
crawl about and do the household work
for she kept no servant. | spoke to my
husband several times about Mrs. Jones
strange illness, and her evidently growing
weakness, for it troubled and puzzled me,
as she frequently said she had always been
unusually healthy up to the time of her
marriage, two or three years before. But
my husband said ! think Jones hates his
wife because he cannot get the money for
which he married her; but, while he isn't
too good to put her out of the world, he is
not the man to dare do anything that
would endanger his own neck Besides
she had a physician when she was last
sick-and of course Jones couldn't poison
her without the physicians knowledge
"Of course / could say no more; but !
felt unsatisiied and troubled. 1t worried
me daily to see poor Mrs. Jones dragging
slowly about her rooms trying to do the
work which was evidently beyond her
small strength and her CHASTITY pallor
and the dark shadows which were almost
like purple stains about her eyes and
mouth, gave me feeling of apprehension
which made me really dread to see her.
Before long she was taken down sick
again. went up to see her as often as !
could leave my own cares but Charley
although so amiable and geutlemanly
now, was a sickly, troublesome baby, and
kept me all the time busy and anxious
and ! never trusted him out of my care
| must say that Mr.. Jones, although he
was not patient husband generally, was
very attentive nurse when his wife i'll
lie not only refused to employ woman tc
take care of her, saying that he had nc
faith in hired nurses, and preferred at,
tending him herself, with the help of the
Sme doctor who had prescribed for hel
1eyious illness, but he seemed almost un
willing for the near neighbors to call OF
her, and gave them but scowling welcome
SAYING that noise and excitement were bad
for her.
4" did not in the least approve of thii
glunl, silent doctors face or ways Ht
never spoke cheerful word to me when
met him, and his manner toward the sici
woma1 was harsh and unfeeling. He tolt